CH 41

School violence in the idol industry was a scandal that had no real answer. The data accumulated from the past incidents that had occurred so far proved that.

Especially when bullying or physical violence entered the list, it was over. I’d never seen any other way that worked out other than just resigning and going to the military.

But for it to happen to a participant from the same team?

‘…Let’s check first.’

I clicked on the first post. In the meantime, more comments piled up.

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[3rd place! Idol Inc. Keun Sejin is accused of bullying] (425)]

: Hold on, hold on, I’m writing this because I feel like I’m going to die if I don’t

Participant Lee Sejin of <Re-listed! Idol Inc.>, nicknamed Keun Sejin, bullied people throughout his studies at Cheongsol High School.

I saw articles posted on the internet saying that he looked like a model student running for the student council president election in high school, I was so upset that I couldn’t sleep.

Lee Sejin had been drinking and smoking since middle school, and he bullied me by hanging out with a group of people who pretend to be kind.

…….

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The long writing that followed insisted on Keun Sejin’s subtle bullying in school.

The description of the one-on-one bullying was detailed and even included detailed examples. At first glance, it seemed convincing even to me.

‘This not just an aggro rumor that has been used once.’

Whether it was true or not, it was a deliberate post. They even attached a picture at the bottom.

The author’s own high school graduation album.

And it was a picture of Keun Sejin with a cigarette on his finger.

Below the picture, this text was added.

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[I have a lot of other pictures. If you understand the situation, resign now. I don’t know about anything else, but I can’t stand a guy like him being an idol.]

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‘… Even if it’s not real, once the label is attached, it’s hard to remove, and they even uploaded a photo.’

In an audition program, it was almost a death sentence. And it was huge bad news for the team.

Even if Keun Sejin survived, the team editing was over, and even if he resigned, it would be hell. From the part distribution to the movement, we would have to practice from scratch again.

“…”

I sighed and raised my head.

‘Let’s check first.’

“I just read the article.”

“…”

There was a heavy silence.

Nobody asked what was going on.

‘It seems everyone else saw it too.’

Keun Sejin silently lowered his head down to the smartphone screen.

“Are you sure this picture is you?”

“…I don’t know.”

Keun Sejin muttered in a dazed voice.

“I’ve never taken a picture of anything like this…”

But you can’t say for sure.

I asked again.

“Did you smoke?”

“Wait, when I was a freshman in high school… I did a little. …but I stopped right away. And I never did anything like this. Seriously, why would I do this at school…”

Keun Sejin, whose voice was getting louder and louder, closed his mouth as if he was suffocated. Then he lowered his eyes to the smartphone again.

‘You’re reading the comments.’

It was obvious that the comments would be terrible. Gold 1 noticed the situation and quickly stopped him.

“Hey, don’t look at it. Just turn it off. Turn it off.”

“…I have to see it to respond. But… Yes, it’s already over.”

Keun Sejin put down his smartphone. The hand that put it down was trembling.

“Honestly, even I wouldn’t believe myself either. I smoked, but I never took a picture, and if I say that everything except for the cigarettes is a lie… It’s not convincing.”

As he spoke, Keun Sejin was getting calmer. No, rather than calming down… He had resigned.

“…People won’t trust me, right?”

“…”

With a picture attached, turning the situation upside down seemed difficult.

Apart from that, Keun Sejin looked upset over being treated unfairly. In addition, the action described in the accusation post was quite different from Keun Sejin’s attitude.

‘Judging from his personality… Even if he bullies someone, I don’t think he’s the type who makes them leave a grudge.’

Wouldn’t it be possible for him to cleverly manipulate the situation so that they wouldn’t even know they were being bullied and made them suffer from their own deeds?

He wasn’t the kind of guy that would slander people this way.

But this was also just a guess. We hadn’t known each other for a long time, so I couldn’t jump to conclusions. Because human beings have many facets.

Aren’t there a lot of cases where someone is a trashy condescending boss but is a reliable father to his son?

“…”

After thinking for a while, I turned on the smartphone screen again. And I started to read all the accusations against Keun Sejin from the very beginning.

In the meantime, Keun Sejin and the team members began to struggle with despair and sadness.

Keun Sejin murmured in a low voice.

“I… I will resign tomorrow.”

“…!!”

“Hey, wait a minute.”

“C-C-Calm d-down…”

“I’ve done enough already. It’s true that I smoked… If I keep holding on here, I think the controversy will only grow.”

Keun Sejin sounded like he was struggling to keep his voice clear.

“After it subsides a little, I will explain it well, then wouldn’t I be able to debut in a year or so? And it’s a bit… I really don’t remember taking that picture, but it comes out, so it’s a bit scary.”

“…”

Keun Sejin, who always had an inch of leisure left to spare, said that, so the other team members seemed to be unable to be able to say anything.

I replied back, still staring at my phone.

“I don’t think that’s a good idea.”

“…Why?”

“The person who posted this wrote, ‘If you understand the situation, resign now.’ If you resign now, these words will become established facts.“

It was not really my business, but as I continued to answer, Keun Sejin’s anger seemed to rise gradually. 

“Stop it. It’ll only make me feel bad. Even if I refute it in this situation, the result is the same.”

“It’s important to have a good rebuttal material.”

“What?”

I picked up my smartphone and turned the screen to Keun Sejin.

On the screen, the last photo included in the accusation post was zoomed in.

“This is photoshopped.”

“…!!”

Your eyes are going to pop out. Stop being surprised.

In fact, if he had thought about it calmly, he would have guessed that it was photoshopped first, but I guess he couldn’t because he was scared.

I handed over my smartphone to Keun Sejin. And I pointed to the obvious part of the picture on the screen with my index finger.

First, the hand holding the cigarette.

“Here, if you zoom in to the design program…. The pixel is a bit broken. I guess they lowered the quality on purpose, but some points are still obvious.”

And cigarettes.

“Only the cigarettes don’t fit the brightness. Looking at the exposure value of this photo, it should be brighter than this, but it looks too white, so they lowered it a bit in the process of lowering it.”

It was an easy mistake for a beginner to make when putting a white object in a picture. It was true that white things stood out, but because it looked awkward, they crushed it.

My smartphone’s performance was so poor that it got cut off a bit, but there was no problem with this verification.

‘…I didn’t expect my data adjustment work to benefit me like this.’

I briefly recalled the past when I granted requests like ‘Please erase that damn pattern on my clothes ㅜㅜ’ and received an extra fee.

“H-How do you know this? Are you sure?”

“Yes.”

Keun Sejin looked at the smartphone without saying a word.

Gold 1 shouted at the sight of a glimmer of hope.

“Hey!! Then give them an explanation right now! It’s photoshopped!”

“O-Oh… Yes! You have to upload it…”

“No, wait a minute.”

It seemed because he was a popular guy in real life, he was ignorant of internet physiology. I explained calmly.

“I’ve looked into it too, I’m sure there are some of your fans who recognized that it was photoshopped.”

“Ah!”

“T-Then if you just wait, t-the fans will….”

“No, I mean… It means that even though some parts are obviously photoshopped, they won’t believe it because they have fun cursing at you. They would be sarcastic because this claim comes from people who like Keun Sejin.”

“…Ah.”

Before the atmosphere of the room deteriorated, I added an explanation right away.

“So find it.”

“What?”

“The original picture. If you upload it with the original, they can’t refute that it’s photoshopped.”

Seeing that Keun Sejin in the picture was staring at the lens, it means that he already knew the existence of the camera.

If so, it was highly likely that someone who was an acquaintance took the picture.

‘However, it is dangerous to contact your acquaintances in this situation.’

Maybe the person who posted it was his acquaintance.

‘Seeing that the person who posted the accusation confidently uploaded this photo, I’m sure not many people have the original photo…’

No, wait. Since it was easy to specify, it seemed unlikely.

‘Well, if that’s not the case…’

I was deep in thought and asked Keun Sejin.

“When you take pictures with other people, do you tend to save them all?”

“The pictures where I show up, yes.”

“Well, first of all… Why don’t you look at the album from the day you took a lot of photos for some event or gathering?“

If they changed the background after cropping Keun Sejin from a group photo that had been taken several times, it was understandable that they would be triumphant since he wouldn’t be able to find the original photo.

“Moondae, what kind of things did you do before? Are you actually an NIS employee?”

“No way.”

Gold 1’s nonsense was quickly passed over.

The other team members were already sitting next to Keun Sejin, looking for the picture together with their big eyes.

“Look at the group photos, not the individual photos. Maybe it’s zoomed in.”

“Okay.”

Keun Sejin, who barely returned to his usual tone, quickly opened the gallery with his smartphone.

And the eye-sickening search time continued.

Sejin took so many pictures. The pictures from high school came out endlessly.

Half an hour had passed, but we hadn’t finished the first year yet.

“S-Sejin, you have a lot of friends.”

“…Haha.”

Even Seon Ahyeon sounded fed up as he muttered this. Keun Sejin flipped through the photos with an embarrassed laugh.

And when the picture of the first semester of the second year came out.

“Hyung, this!”

“…!”

Kim Raebin pointed to a picture that passed over his fingers. Keun Sejin quickly checked the picture.

It was a picture of five or six people standing together and smiling at the camera. There were several pictures of different poses, taken in the same place, back and forth.

Keun Sejin was a little far away in the corner. And when I zoomed in on his upper body, I could see it clearly.

It was the photo in the accusation post.

“…Ha.”

Keun Sejin bowed his head and let out a long sigh of relief.

Then he muttered in a somewhat dejected voice.

“…It’s a picture from the election campaign.”

“Hmm.”

Come to think of it, at the beginning of the accusation post, there was something about running for president of the student body. I didn’t know who it was, but they must have been a bit of a bother.

‘Maybe I should have told him to look for the picture from that time first.’

But we found it anyway, so it’s fine.

“Huff…”

Keun Sejin stretched back as if the tension had been relieved. He almost hit his head on the wall behind the bed, but it was clear that he couldn’t care about it now.

“Thank God. It’s in my photo album.”

“Right.”

I nodded.

Next to him, Gold 1 spoke vigorously.

“Good! You have an agency, right? Send it to them right away! Ask them to write a rebuttal!”

It was advice that made sense. Since things had already gotten bigger, it would be better to officially respond with evidence.

However, a shaky response came back.

“To my agency?”

Keun Sejin rubbed the back of his neck with a mysterious expression.

“Hm… That’s a bit…”

“…?”

It was supposed to be the agency’s job.